Hi Paul,

I use my own package action for this. Not sure where I got the code from but must have come from somewhere:

public class AddDashboard : IPackageAction
{
    public string Alias()
    {
        return "AddDashboard";
    }

    public bool Execute(string packageName, XmlNode xmlData)
    {

        LogHelper.Info(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType, String.Format("Start Action {0}: Execute() for package {1}.", this.Alias(), packageName));

        try
        {
            this.AddSectionDashboard("MyDashboard", "content", "Dashboard", "DASHBOARD RELATIVE PATH HERE");
            LogHelper.Info(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType, String.Format("Complete Action {0}: Execute() for package {1}.", this.Alias(), packageName));

            return true;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            LogHelper.Error(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType, String.Format("Error in {0}: Execute() for package {1}.", this.Alias(), packageName), ex);

            return false;
        }
    }

    public void AddSectionDashboard(string sectionAlias, string area, string tabCaption, string src)
    {
        bool saveFile = false;

        //Path to the file resolved
        var dashboardFilePath = IOHelper.MapPath(SystemFiles.DashboardConfig);

        //Load settings.config XML file
        XmlDocument dashboardXml = new XmlDocument();
        dashboardXml.Load(dashboardFilePath);

        // Section Node
        XmlNode findSection = dashboardXml.SelectSingleNode("//section [@alias='" + sectionAlias + "']");

        //Couldn't find it
        if (findSection == null)
        {
            //Let's add the xml
            var xmlToAdd = "<section alias='" + sectionAlias + "'>" +
                                "<areas>" +
                                    "<area>" + area + "</area>" +
                                "</areas>" +
                                "<tab caption='" + tabCaption + "'>" +
                                    "<control addPanel='true' panelCaption=''>" + src + "</control>" +
                                "</tab>" +
                           "</section>";

            //Get the main root <dashboard> node
            XmlNode dashboardNode = dashboardXml.SelectSingleNode("//dashBoard");

            if (dashboardNode != null)
            {
                //Load in the XML string above
                XmlDocument xmlNodeToAdd = new XmlDocument();
                xmlNodeToAdd.LoadXml(xmlToAdd);

                var toAdd = xmlNodeToAdd.SelectSingleNode("*");

                //Prepend the xml above to the dashboard node - so that it will be the first dashboards to show in the backoffice.
                dashboardNode.PrependChild(dashboardNode.OwnerDocument.ImportNode(toAdd, true));

                //Save the file flag to true
                saveFile = true;
            }
        }

        //If saveFile flag is true then save the file
        if (saveFile)
        {
            //Save the XML file
            dashboardXml.Save(dashboardFilePath);
        }
    }


    public XmlNode SampleXml()
    {
        string sample = "<Action runat=\"install\" undo=\"true/false\" alias=\"AddDasboard\"/>";

        return helper.parseStringToXmlNode(sample);
    }

    public bool Undo(string packageName, XmlNode xmlData)
    {
        this.RemoveDashboardTab("USNDashboard");

        return true;
    }

    public void RemoveDashboardTab(string sectionAlias)
    {

        string dbConfig = IOHelper.MapPath(SystemFiles.DashboardConfig);
        XmlDocument dashboardFile = new XmlDocument();
        dashboardFile.Load(dbConfig);

        XmlNode section = dashboardFile.SelectSingleNode("//section [@alias = '" + sectionAlias + "']");

        if (section != null)
        {
            dashboardFile.SelectSingleNode("//dashBoard").RemoveChild(section);
            dashboardFile.Save(dbConfig);
        }

    }
}

Then I use the following within my package file to fire it:

<Action runat="install" undo="true" alias="AddDashboard" />